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ROUSTABOUTS 

History of 
MAHASKA 
COUNTY 




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History of Mahaska County 



Chapter I — The Beginning 

"In the beginning God created the 
heaven and the earth." — Genesis 1:1. 

Along about this same time it is in- 
ferred that He also made Mahaska 
county. And the inference is also 
well grounded that He was fairly 
well satisfied with the job. At least, 
through our long experience here, 
and by diligent and persistent in^- 
quiry, we have failed to find a singly 
person who was displeased with thQ 
local section of the Creator's handi- 
work. There are those of course 
who have lived in this second edition 
of the Garden of Eden, who have 
left it for parts untried, but history 
records that every one of them would 
be glad to come back. And many of 
them would if the walking were bet- 
ter. 



After the flood, one of the de- 
scendants of Noah came to America 
to make his fortune, and to return 
to the Faderland to live in ease and 
luxury ever after. But after pene- 
trating the continent as far as the 
3 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

Mississippi river he became so im- 
pressed with the country that he 
concluded to stay. He wrote home 
to tell the folks about the eldorado 
he had discovered here, and sent 
them round trip tickets to come and 
visit him. But the Democrats must 
have been in control of the postoflice 
department at that time, as the let- 
ter was never delivered. After wait- 
ing a long time and receiving no re- 
ply, he in desperation plunged into 
the wilds and became a regular 
Indian. 



But the Lord was good to Iowa's 
first Weary Willie, and out of the 
Sun, He sent him a nice wife to cook 
his buffalo meat and make him 
clothes out of the hides. She also 
split the kindling and carried the 
water from the spring, pressed his 
trousers after each rain and took 
care of him when he had appendici- 
tis. By this method he acquired hab- 
its of ingratitude and laziness that 
extended from generation to genera- 
tion even unto the present day. And 
the red men are not alone in their 
fixed habits. Some of the pale faces 
who came afterwards and sv/iped the 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

Indian's lands and carried off his 
wampum and his superstitions, also 
adopted his indolence. And in or- 
der that the prophesies might be ful- 
filled they let the women do the work 
while they chew tobacco and talk 
politics. 



It will not be necessary here to re- 
peat the story of the discovery of 
America by the other branch of the 
human family, or of how two hun- 
hundred-and-forty-four thousand early 
settlers came over in the Mayflower, 
whose carrying capacity, according 
to Webster's Unabridged, v/as only 
two hundred, — aand at that the bunks 
were not all used. But it will be 
interesting to know that the first 
white man who established his home 
in Mahaska county and threw his 
trot line in Des Moines river was 
Mr. Macbeth. Unfortunately, even 
such a good an historian as Manoah 
Hedge fails to tell us whether this 
pioneer was a descendant of the old 
king of Scotland of the same name, 
the fellow whom William Shakes- 
peare brought into the limelight. It 
was lucky for the king, however, that 
Shakespeare, — or Ben Johnson as 

5 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

the case may be, — came along when 
he did, else this particular Macbeth 
might have gone down unhonored, 
unremembered and unsung. 

But not so the one who broke the 
ice in Mahaska county. His name 
will live forever, although some peo- 
ple are mean enough to suspect that 
his pioneer cabin was not on this side 
of the Wapello county line. Mr. 
Macbeth came to the Indian village 
at Eddyville and obtained permission 
to build a summer home outside the 
humdrum of city life, v%'here no traf- 
fic cop would disturb ambitions to 
outstrip his neighbors, and no game 
warden would come along to tell him 
how to bend a brass pin to make a 
fish hook. He built the home and 
lived there, and if it were not in the 
confines of Mahaska county v/e will 
always think it ought to have been, 
and will let it stand at that. 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter II— Indians 

Just where that first Indian, which 
we mentioned in a previous chapter, 
built his capital of state, — or more 
properly speaking, just Vv'here he had 
the squaws erect the citadel, — is still 
a disputed question. Some relics 
found on the old Boyer farm on Des 
Moines river might indicate that it 
was in that neighborhood. The key 
to the inscriptions on these relics was 
unfortunately carried away in the 
mad rush to California after gold was 
discovered in 1849. Dr. Crowder 
thinks it was buried somewhere in 
Arizona to keep the Californians 
from getting this also. They have 
already gotten nearly everything else 
of value that was produced in this 
community. Several expeditions 

have been made in an effort to re- 
cover the treasure, but as the Oska- 
loosa police are wont to say, "no clue 
has as yet been discovered." 

This failure on the part of Scott 
township to produce the goods has 
lent color to the contention of White 
Oak township that the first capital of 

7 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

the new world was located within its 
"borders. At any rate it was here 
that one of the first treaties with the 
Indians was made which resulted in 
the emigration of all the other red 
men, who had not already been sent 
to the happy hunting grounds, to oth- 
er maize fields and to other buffalo 
preserves. We go at that buffalo 
proposition rather gingerly as you 
will remember that such good author- 
ity as Bob Garden of Tracy says 
theer never were any buffalo here. 
But anyhow we are told that the big 
gun of the Indian tribe at hat par- 
ticular time was one Kish-Ke-Kosh 
and that he lived in great splendor 
and without working any overtime, 
in his village along the Skunk river. 



In the Indian language, as inter- 
preted by experts from Ames, Kish- 
Ke-Kosh means "the man with one 
leg off." But William Street told us 
at one time when he lived in his old 
home place where the Lacey hotel 
stands, that his father, General 
Street, had told him that no Indian 
ever possessed a better pair of legs 
than did Kish-Ke-Kosh and that the 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

spokesman of the tribe often used it 
to good effect in shooing off the 
agents who came to negotiate for the 
purchase of his land. But the In- 
dians have no mortgage on being 
misnamed. Just think of the boys 
in this country who have been chris- 
tened Teddy Roosevelt or William 
Jennings Bryan. There are some 
qualifications, the absence of which 
is more noticeable than the omission 
of a leg from the anatomy. And on 
the other hand think of these boys 
who will have to bear these burdens 
even unto their graves. 



But as we have said before, Kish- 
Ke-Kosh was some pumpkins among 
the red men of those days and it took 
several pipe fulls of peace purposes 
to get him to move on to make room 
for Cracker's Neck, Tioga, and other 
settlements that were to come later. 
And even after the papers were all 
drawn up and a forfeit posted, the 
white man had to take Kish-Ke-Kosh 
and several other Indian chiefs 
aboard a Des .Moines river steamer 
and pilot them around the water 
route, (this has no reference what- 

9 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

ever to prohibition) to Washington, 
to see his honor, — we have forgotten 
who lived in the White House at that 
time. Enroute a reporter for the 
Herald v>'itnessed this incident that 
has been engraven on the folk lore of 
the community and at last accepted 
as true. A party of ladies came 
aboard the steamer at one of the 
landings, presumedly, at Keosauqua, 
and a smart young man took them 
around to see the chiefs. He exhib- 
ited them much as fat stock might 
be pointed out at a county fair. The 
other chiefs stood for it, thinking it 
was part of the consideration for the 
lands they v^^ere to surrender, but 
Kish-Ke-Kosh swore several cuss 
words in his pure Sac mother tongue, 
and gave the young fellow such a 
licking that he had to stand up and 
eat his meals until he got to the Port 
of Louisa, his destination. After 
that the name of Kish-Ke-Kosh was 
respected in the land, and he lived 
in peace and retirement from molly- 
coddles, until his spirit took its flight 
and his body was wrapped in his 
blanket and suspended to the limb 
of a tree that his bones might be 
bleached and come back to be worn 
about the necks of his children and 
his children's children. 
10 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter III— Our Chief 

Not many moons ago the Red Oak 
Reporter sprung the story on the un- 
suspecting public, that it had just 
been discovered by Montgomery coun- 
ty enthusiasts that the bones of Chief 
Mahaska were resting in tlie town of 
Sciola, which liad an alleged popula- 
tion of 118 at the last Federal census, 
also a bank and an express office. 
What in creation Chief Mahaska 
would want to go away out to Mont- 
gomery county to be murdered for, 
when he could have the job performed 
so much easier and quicker in Des 
Moines, is a problem that no Archae- 
ologist of any standing whatever 
would even consider. We will there- 
fore in these chronicles stick to the 
accepted theory that the bones are 
resting in Des Moines, that is if no 
Des Moines citizen has ever found it 
out. In case he has, the bones have 
long since been carried off, as no Des 
Moines citizen was ever known to 
allow anything to lie around loose 
for any length of time. 



At any rate Mahaska has long been 
11 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

a gooci Indian, All authorities agree 
that he has been dead since about 
1844. And wherever his remains 
may rest, we have got his monument 
in the public park at Oskaloosa, and 
we are going to keep it there if we 
have to reorganize the "Skunk River 
Army" to do the fighting. It is up 
to us to do something of a substan- 
tial nature to honor the fellow after 
whom our county was named. Sher- 
ry Frye, the famous 'Iowa sculptor, 
made the statue and it was set up 
by J. D. Edmundson of Des Moines, 
in honor of his father, William Ed- 
mundson, who was one of the com- 
missioners who helped lay out the 
county, and who on several occasions 
entertained Chief Mahaska at a 
house party, or in the language of 
our society editors, "a week's end 
visit." 



We do not know where Sherry got 
the model for the statue, but the, gen- 
eral make up of the chief, and the 
countenance which stands out in such 
charming relief, bear silent and sol- 
emn witness to the veracity of the 
contentions of all the early settlers 
that Chief Mahaska was a fighter, but 
18 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

with all was a gentleman Indian, — 
that is, he scalped and swore without 
mercy, but never failed to keep his 
word. In this respect he was differ- 
ent from other gentlemen whom we 
have heard of, — who often use blas- 
phemous language and good English, 
but have trouble in establishing a 
line of credit at the bank. Mahaska 
also left other men's wives alone as 
he had seven of his own, and accord- 
ing to the short and simple annals of 
the Iowa tribe, they kept him out of 
mischief at home and abroad. 



History records that Mahaska's fav- 
orite wife, Rant-che-waime, accom- 
panied him to Washington, when he 
went down there to see President 
Monroe and fix up the title to the 
land he was about to part with. 
While conversing with the abstract- 
ors and real estate men in the capital 
it is said that the Chief also met 
some members of the Personal Lib- 
erty League and liked their fire-water 
so well that he forgot an appoint- 
ment he had with Rant-che-waime. 
Arriving at his hotel about two hours 
behind time, and with his feathers 
13 



ROUSTAAOUT'S HISTORY 



badly ruffled lie found his wife 
awaiting him with a brass curtain 
pole. The proceedings which imme- 
diately took place aroused the hotel 
clerk from his evening nap at the 
desk, and he sent the bell boy up to 
see if they needed any ice water. 
There was no telephone connection 
with the rooms in those days, and by 
the time the boy reached the room 
quiet had been restored. Poor old 
Mahaska, however, was not used to 
city ways, and imagining it was the 
town marshal coming for him, raised 
the window and stepped out. It was 
some forty feet to the ground, and as 
he had no parachute he hit pretty 
hard and broke an arm. It must be 
recorded to the credit of this good 
Indian, however, that he never laid 
the blame on his wife, but instead 
went along with his social engage- 
ments at the White House and 
"punched the face off" the fellow who 
asked him what had happened. 



In our language Mahaska means 
"White Cloud," and the mistake is of- 
ten made by historians in declaring 
that Oskaloosa was his daughter and 

14 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

furnished the proverbial silver lining 
for the cloud. Not so. Ouscauloosa 
of Indian tradition was a Creek prin 
cess, so you see we all have royal 
blood in our veins, and have a right 
to draw family trees and hang on the 
tinsel. The Seminoles made war on 
the Creeks and destroyed the entire 
body of warriors, and carried off all 
the women and children, including 
Ouscauloosa. Arising to the occa- 
sion, as our town has always done, 
she made herself so attractive that 
Osceola wanted her for his wife. She 
consented, and when her trousseau 
arrived from Paris she married the 
Seminole chief, and they built their 
wigwam on the brow of a hill over- 
looking the classic Che-Chau-Qua, and 
ever afterwards she made the living 
for the family. 



15 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 



Chapter IV— County Seat 

We have on file in our library in- 
disptuable evidence of the fact that 
Oliver Goldsmith, an English poet 
from Ireland, is the author of the fol- 
lowing lines, crities and muck-rakers 
to the contrary notwithstanding: 

"Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of 

the plain. 
Where health and plenty cheered the 

laboring swain. 
Where smiling spring its earliest 

visits paid. 
And parting summer's lingering 

bloom delayed." 

But with all the poet's beautiful 
words, and the untiring energies of 
the early settlers of the neighbor- 
hood, "Sweet Auburn" of Mahaska 
county history could not cut the mus- 
tard. That is to say, you know, the 
heartless commissioners who came 
iLpon the scene for that purpose, by 
order of the Legislature, would not 
let them have the county seat located 
there. 



Our "Sweet Auburn" as recorded 
in Horace Birdsall's history of Ma- 
haska county. Page ZQS, Edition of 
16 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

1S78, line ten, not counting the 
quotations, was located on "Six Mile 
Prairie" with its suburbs bathed in 
the waters of the Des Moines river, 
which ebbed and flowed once in ev 
erj^ so often after a big rain up the 
stream. The whistles of the great 
fleet of river steamers could be 
heard in the distance three or four 
times a year, and the town's dreamed 
of smoke-stacks, suspension bridges 
and sky-scrapers, towered to heaven, 
and playea hide and seek with the 
drifting clouds. But alas! and 
alack! Sweet Auburn followed its 
namesake into innocuous desuetude 
or some other seaport around the 
golden horn that points to the land 
of the sweet by and by. And the 
deserted village once again reverted 
into farm land, — although we are told 
it did not have far to go, — and the 
Indian maize laughed itself into yel- 
low dent on the heart of the virgin 
prairie, and the lowing herd and the 
lean sided razor back waxed fat and 
rooted every fence post off the place 
while trying to lift the mortgages off 
the farms. 



Mahaska Center, where a fine 

17 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

country church now graces the land- 
scape, and where the tallest flag- 
pole in the new world was once 
raised, was also a candidate for the 
county court house. But it, too, 
failed, and afterwards the flag-staff 
was taken down to prevent it from 
falling asleep and in some unguarded 
moment toppling over and making 
mince meat out of the meeting house. 
The commissioners, three in num- 
ber, were paid two dollars per day 
for their labors, and if the country 
roads were no better in those days 
than some of our side streets are 
now, Messrs. Jesse Williams of John- 
son county, Ebenezer Perkins of 
Washington county and Thomas Hen- 
derson of Keokuk county, earned 
their money. Mahaska county as 
then constituted comprised all the 
land to the northwest as far as any- 
one wished to venture away from 
home, even taking in Fort Des 
Moines and Fort Dodge. Soon tir- 
ing of this arrangement the people 
sent Judge M. T. Williams from Os- 
kaloosa up into the wilds along the 
Raccoon river and ordered him to 
take a slice off of the outskirts of 
Mahaska county and make a new 

18 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

commonwealth in order that some of 
the fellows in Des Moines might re- 
lieve their itch for office. In this 
commission, as well as in the many 
others in which he served in an ear- 
ly day, the Judge did a fine job and 
Polk county owes its existence to his 
labors. Many settlers have since 
rushed into the new territory, until 
they now boast of over one hundred 
thousand people, all but nine hun- 
dred of whom are still looking for an 
office. 



But getting back to that beautiful 
May day in 1844, it was a lucky strike 
for Oskaloosa when the commission- 
ers stuck their spade in the ground 
and said: "Here shall rise the future 
capital of Mahaska county." The 
new site w^as on what was then 
known as "the narrows," a high ridge 
running along between the rivers, — 
and it is a notable fact even unto the 
present day that the rain that falls 
on the south side of the public square 
finds its way into the Des Moines riv- 
er, (after passing through the septic 
tank), and that which falls on the 
north side of the square runs through 
the Gibbs pasture, (according to rec- 

19 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

ords several times made in the dis- 
trict court) and empties into Skunk 
river, via Spring Creek. But we 
wtio have come after should always 
feel grateful to those good commis- 
sioners who afforded us such a pleas- 
ant place in which to fight out our 
political fusses, play golf and pay 
taxes. Then the town, or the place 
where the town ought to be, was 
named Oskaloosa. Later this in- 
spired our first local poet of record, 
George W. Seevers, Sr., to sing: 

'Oskaloosa! Oskaloosa! 

What a beauteous name! 
Who'd have thought a wee papoose 

Ever bore the same? 

Once it was an Indian baby. 

Then a Chieftain's mate, 
Now a court house, next it may be 

Capital of State." 

But as we have said before, Des 
Moines got all the offices, including 
the state house, though we once had 
the State Fair in Oskaloosa. 



20 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter V— Railroads 

After the Indians had been prop- 
erly dispatched, and the county-seat 
fight was settled without bloodshed, 
there followed a season of rest and 
recreation, — also the civil war period. 
But the next big event that we re- 
member was sailing along through 
space at the end of father's arm down 
•to the old Iowa Central depot on 
First Avenue, — or Main Street as the 
thoroughfare was then called, — to 
see the first regular pasenger train 
that ever disturbed the peaceful 
dreams of Greater Oskaloosa. As 
we recall the scenes, a section man 
in a bright red flannel undershirt, 
kept the crowd back, a "monster lo- 
comotive" with four drive wheels and 
a smoke stack as big around as a 
Ihogshead trembled and roared for 
other worlds to conquer, a conductor 
in brass buttons, playing the part of 
a greater personage than a Roman 
Emperor or the king of fairyland, 
filled our youthful gizzard with a de- 
sire to be a railroad man, and all 
the while the people cheered and yell- 
ed "hurrah for the Iowa Central" 
and the "Cannon Ball." 

21 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

Now that word cannon ball had no 
connection with the war that had but 
recently been settled, but was the 
only term that the people of the town 
could invent to in a measure ade- 
quately express the marvelous speed 
of eighteen miles an hour maintained 
by that pioneer train — while on the 
track — in its terrific efforts all the 
way from Albia to Mason City. But 
nevertheless and notwithstanding, 
Oskaloosa had a railway, and if it did 
not have any street paving or cement 
sidewalks it was bigger in the esti- 
mation of the people of those days 
than it ever has been since or is like- 
ly to be again. Main street then be- 
gan to spruce up and Jack Shipley 
was given the contract for delivering 
the mail from the post ofiice to the 
depot. When Frank Lofland failed 
to get the mail made up in time to 
catch the bus or baggage wagon 
Jack mounted a trusted steed at the 
old Bashaw Barn and threw mud or 
dust as the case might be all over 
the houses along the way and deliv- 
ered an average of eighteen letters 
and seven papers and other parcels to 
that train every day for seventeen 
years without missing. Mr. Shipley 
22 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

is now living in Alhambra, California. 

Then John Waggoner was given 
the contract to build a two-inch 
plank walk, eight feet wide, all the 
way from the public square to the 
depot, down the south side of Main 
street. He was to have it done by 
a certain date, but neglected to reck- 
on with the weather man, who even 
in those days was as fickle as the 
one who now presides over the bu- 
reau in Des Moines. We can re- 
member him yet working under an 
umbrella in the rain tryiiLg to keep 
the job in progress, and then after it 
cleared off he worked often until mid- 
night by moonlight. And the job was 
completed in contract time and Main 
street was just that much ahead of 
its rival, High street. The first man 
we remember walking over the new 
walk was Nan Phillips in a white lin- 
en suit and plug hat. He was hur- 
rying down to catch the "Cannon 
Ball" to go to New Sharon to try a 
law suit. Our recollection is that 
he won. 

Shortly after this High street 
spruced up and the original Mahaska 
county court house building which 
stood where the Oskaloosa National 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

Bank is now located was moved to a 
new location down the street across 
the alley west of where the new Mc- 
Gregor building now stands. It was 
rigged up for a hotel, and being op- 
erated by a family named Noe was 
soon called "Noah's Ark." Carl Noe 
the son, was quite an athlete in those 
days, and as a foot racer he beat ev- 
ery contestant that tackled him. One 
Hallowe'en we remember helping put 
a buggy up on the wooden awning 
that sheltered the guests of the ho- 
tel ,and it was the common talk 
among the boys of the time that Mr. 
Noe was getting his property in 
shape, anticipating another flood. 
Then came the Grinnell cyclone, the 
strange phenomenon of which was 

plainly visible here. And many of 
our people said afterwards that the 
disaster was exactly what they ex- 
pected, even to the number of deaths. 
This catastrophe not only helped the 
revival that was in progress in town 
at the time, but it also had another 
unusual effect. It changed the 
method of reckoning the dates of lo- 
cal events away from "the time that 
Cam Ruffner sat down on the oil can," 
in the Qld and original roller skating 
rink that was located in a frame 
building where the Glaze & Haynes 
grocery is now located. 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter VI— Inventions 

One of the first Oskaloosa inveu- 
tions that ever drew fame and fortune 
was the washing machine manufac- 
tured hy A. J. Parkhurst. It was sold 
all over the United States and the 
factory here for years was a busy 
place. Competition became sharp 
and Mr. Parkhurst engaged in other 
business. For years he owned the 
building of recent date occupied by 
the Davis Bros. Cigar Store. There 
was a barber shop up stairs and the 
barber went into voluntary bank- 
ruptcy, leaving his furniture to pay 
the rent. Lon Drinkle says that one 
day when he ran a tin shop across 
the street he went up to help Mr. 
Parkhurst invoice his new belongings. 
Some stranger, not knowing of the 
business depression, came in to get 
shaved. The men were game and 
told the fellow to get in the chair. Mr. 
Drinkle found a bar of White Rus- 
sian soap and a wash pan, and with 
a dauber, used to shine shoes, he 
lathered the customer in good shape. 
But when Mr. Parkhurst came up 
with a hatchet to do the shaving, the 
25 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

fellow balked. Jumping out of the 
cliair he wiped the lather off with his 
bandana, grabbed up his suit case 
and went down the street like a Kan- 
sas cyclone. So far as known, he is 
going yet. 

But speaking about inventions, it is 
an historic fact that the first time 
power was ever used in roasting pea- 
nuts, it was applied in Oskaloosa by 
W. E. Vernon, otherwise known as 
"Bill." Mr. Vernon was running a 
restaurant at the time and he and 
Billy Leighton built a little steam 
engine in the furnace room of the old 
Herald office and applied it to a 
roaster, which Mr. Vernon had at 
his place of business, and which for- 
merly was operated with hand power, 
much like the rocking of a cradle. 
Patents were secured and the roast- 
ers were sold everywhere. For a 
time Mr.Vernon made the machines at 
his home on the corner oi South A 
street and Third avenue. Later he 
built the building at the corner of A 
street and A avenue, now used as a 
hour and feed store. For a time 
he employed as many as 25 to 30 
men. The old original model was 
donated to the Roustabout for some 
26 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

reason, and it was taken to the Trask 
home, where Harry and your humble 
servant tried to put it in operation. 
For a boiler we used a 5 gallon oil 
can. When the fire got to going 
good, the safety valve stuck and the 
boiler exploded. We dont remem- 
ber what Harry got but we got a 
"licking" for spoiling a brand new 
suit of clothes. 

And by the way. Mother bought 
the cloth out of which that suit was 
made from James Atchison, when he 
ran the store for Siebel & Esgen's 
Woolen Mills. The Woolen Mills, 
you will remember, were the fore- 
irunners of the Oskaloosa Flouring 
Mill, which finally burned down some 
six or eight years ago. But when the 
W^oolen Mills were in full operation 
the foreman was a man by the name 
of Davis. The name would indicate 
Welsh extraction, but we have lab- 
ored under the impression that he 
was English. At any rate he had 
three sons, Ed, Frank and Lewis. We 
knew all of them, but Frank being 
nearest our age appealed to us the 
strongest. Down at their home, 
which was one of the mill houses on 
First avenue west, was a regular 

27 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

work shop of jig saws, turning lathes, 
etc. We were often taken in as one 
of the family and permitted to use 
the machines in regular turn. 

Our recollection is that the rest of 
us succeeded in getting things out of 
kelter pretty often and had to depend 
on Frank to straighten them out. We 
also remember that Frank could beat 
us at every game without and at 
arithmetic in school. We could hold 
our own on geography and spelling 
and beat him running, — especially af- 
ter helping ourselves to some of 
"Old Mr. Ferrall's" apples in the 
orchard on South D street. But to 
make a long story short, Frank went 
to work for Warren Johnson in the 
Novelty Iron Works, He was soon 
foreman, pattern designer and equal 
to any task imposed on him. As a 
consequence he was called to Mil- 
waukee to work for the AUis Engine 
Co. But even this big job that paid 
in the end something like $5,000 a 
year was not big enough for Frank so 
he engaged in business for himself. 
He is now the majority owner of a 
factory employing about 500 men and 
running 24 hours a day. They also 
tell us that Frank rides in an 8-cyl- 

28 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

inder 1917 machine. The first time 
we walk to Milwaukee we are going 
to bone him for a ride on the grounds 
that if we had not been so awkward 
and had not broken his early ma- 
chines as often, he would not be as 
expert as he is now. 



29 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 



Chapter VII -Good Roads 

History records that Paul Revere 
made quite a drive one time, through 
the Middlesex country, back of Bos- 
ton, and routed a lot of patriots out 
of their beds to help give the British 
soldiers the marble heart. Phil Sher- 
idan also drove his black charger to 
good effect during the civil war. And, 
according to the newspaper dispatches 
from the front during the present un- 
pleasantness in Europe, both the Ger- 
mans and the Allies have made nu- 
merous drives. But of all the drives 
that were ever made, including San- 
cho Panza's plunge into the wind- 
mill, none stand out in the minds of 
our people like the drive that Don 
McClure made on the 28th day of 
December, Anno Domo IXMXII, or 
words to that effect. The agree- 
ment with P. C. Peterson was that 
the race would be pulled off during 
the week between Christmas and New 
Year's and between sun up and sun 
down. Think of driving from Dav- 
enport to Council Bluffs — across Iowa 
in the deaa of winter. But Don did 
it. And beat Peterson to a stand- 

30 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

sVill. Although it is copyrighted 
and registered, we shall always think 
that the color of the Great White 
Way should be changed in honor of 
the Green Dragon that carried Don 
to Fame and several times almost to 
eternity. 



History also records that in the ear- 
ly days means of locomotion, other 
than "Shank's Ponies" were limited 
in Mahaska county. Wm. Edmund- 
son, one of the commissioners who 
laid out the county and served as 
first sheriff, owned the only horse 
and buggy that could be found in the 
community for many years. Later, 
as related by Manoah Hedge, Major 
Neeley started the first livery stable 
in Oskaloosa. In 1848 Henry Stafford 
purchased its belongings, and one day 
when a party passed through town, — 
or where the town was to be, — with 
two large elk, — the John the Baptists 
of B. P. O. E. No. 340,— Mr. Stafford 
conceived the idea of having a team 
of reindeer, and traded for the stags. 
He tried every way to break them, 
but as Hardy Miller was not as yet 
in the land of the living, the job had 
to be abandoned. Horses then held 

31 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

their own until Frank Nowels import- 
ed a team of oxen for Hoover's Dis- 
tillery, and "Little McNeill" brought 
the first buzz wagon to Oskaloosa, on 
high wheels and low speed. 



And speaking about handsome turn- 
outs and good roads, recalls that the 
first appropriation for a public high- 
way in Mahaska county was made 
about 1854 when Judge J. A. L. Crook- 
ham ordered an expenditure of $5.00 
to stretch a rope across Des Moines 
river at Bellefountaine for the use of 
the ferry boat. The request was 
made by a delegation of farmers in 
the presence of John White, and when 
Judge Crookham hesitated, Mr. White 
said: "Go ahead, and I will stand by 
you if the appropriation is ever ques- 
tioned," Hence, to these two good 
old pioneers belongs the credit of be- 
ing the original good roads boosters 
in the county. Dr. Roberts and Bill 
Lacey to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing. 



The history of local avenues of 
traffic and means of locomotion would 
not be complete without a word about 
32 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

"Metz's Path," as related at one time 
by Charles Glover. Metz was a ma- 
chinist and worked in the old foun- 
dry that stood for years, "south of 
town," but now the corner of First 
street and Fifth avenue. He lived 
away over in the other part of the 
original quarter section, near where 
the old brewery used to stand. We 
are not charging that his place of 
residence had anything to do with the 
matter, but Metz used to be of a bib- 
ulous temperament. He was not 
hampered by narrow streets, and 
wiggling sidewalks, as there were 
none. Well, anyhow, it snowed aw- 
fully hard one night, — not like it does 
in this day and age, but as it used 
to do, when the rail fences were bur- 
ied and a tunnel had to be dug from 
the kitchen door to the family pump. 
On this particular morning everybody 
else stayed in bed, hoping that some 
one else might come along and break 
a path. Well, Metz was the goat. 
He started out away early, as he had 
a long way to go and a pretty heavy 
load to carry. He zig-zagged and 
counter-marched, and went about 
three times the necessary distance to 
get to his work. He made it all 

33 C 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

right and blew the whistle at the 
proper time. Those who came after 
followed the machinations of the 
early machinist, and the crooked 
path became a beaten thoroughfare. 
The snow stayed on the ground for 
months, as used to be its habit, and 
the "highway" which was established 
without tripod or level, — or the as- 
sistance of the State Highway Com- 
mission, — remained an institution of 
Oskaloosa for a long time, — its fame 
surviving after its footprints had all 
been obliterated. For years it was 
a byword in town, that anything that 
was out of plumb, was "as crooked as 
Metz's path." 



34 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter VIII— Industries 

Charley Ralston told us not long 
ago that he had been behind the 
counter 38 years. Charley has us 
skinned about three years. We do 
not mean that we have been behind 
a counter that long, but it has been 
35 years since we accepted regular 
work at fixed wages. Our first rec- 
ollections of Charley, — or "Banty," as 
we used to call him, — was working in 
Johnson's Foundry, which was then 
located in the building now occupied 
by Clarence Vermillion and his dray 
and storage business. Charley was 
breaking up old scrap iron to fill the 
cupola of the foundry preparatory to 
casting. You will have to imagine 
what Charley said one day when a 
piece of iron flew up and hit him on 
the bread basket. Charley has an 
outspoken way of expressing himself 
you know. But Charley's business 
record, running from foundry boy to 
mayor of the city of Oskaloosa, is 
surely one worthy of consideration 
and praise. Starting with nothing 
and working 22 hours a day for 38 
years, he has accumulated enough to 
35 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

get married and live in comfort ever 
after. And we are afraid Charley 
vvon't do it. But he ought to. 



Speaking about business careers, 
we remember when we bought a 
steam laundry in a desperate effort 
to get printer's ink off our fingers. 
We run it for four years, and washed 
and washed, but the inK still stuck 
and we finally had to give it up and 
go back to the ink barrel and the hell- 
box. Now lest some one would 
think we were swearing, we wish to 
explain ourselves. Printers' pie is 
a bad mixture of type, and when it 
becomes worn or broken it is thrown 
into a receptacle known to the pro- 
fession as the hell-box. After it is 
sufticiently saturated with tobacco 
juice it is boxed up and shipped away 
and traded for new stuff, — type, we 
mean, not tobacco juice. But why 
the receptacle is called the hell-box 
we do not know, and other authorities 
differ. We presume it is for the 
same reason that a printer's appren- 
tice is called a "Devil." The or- 
thography of this word also begins 
and ends in mystery. 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

But, as we intended to say, — back 
there along about the first comma, — 
when we bought the Laundry, we 
were rushing down town one morning 
about 7 o'clock to see that the wash 
water was of the proper temperature, 
when L. L. Hull called to us from an 
upstairs window and wanted to know 
where the fire was. We had heard 
of no fire and appeared surprised, 
whereupon, he ventured the question, 
that if there was no fire, what were 
we rushing down town in the middle 
of the night for? Those who knew 
Mr. Hull will remember that he pre- 
ferred to work half the night ana 
sleep late the next morning, some- 
times until 10 and 11 o'clock. 



When we set up shop for ourselves 
Mr. Hull was the first fellow to come 
in and wish us well. He said: "i 
am glad you have made the venture, 
my boy, and I hope you will succeed. 
Remember this, a man can maKe a 
success of even a peanut stand, if he 
will stick to it, and give it his best 
effort." We have often thought of 
that little bit of advice and have by 
its recollection many times been en- 
couraged to make another resolve and 
37 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

go on when despair had us by the 
coat tails. 



«ioing back a little further, we be- 
lieve L. L. Hull was about the first 
fellow we ever worked for. The 
family used to live on Second avenue 
west ,and Mr. Hull at one time kept 
an eagle, an ostrich, a monkey, a pea- 
cock, and several other animals of 
like character. We split the kind- 
ling and carried in coal for the house- 
hold and also acted as animal trainer. 
We shall never forget how near to 
the seventh heaven our boyish heart 
soared when in addition to our regu- 
lar compensation, one Saturday even- 
ing, Mrs. Hull threw in an ostrich 
egg. We treasured it for a long time 
until an unseemly fall from the man- 
tle over the fireplace left only a mem- 
ory and a bad smell. Whether it 
was because the family grew tired of 
our services or because we gave sat- 
isfaction, we have never been able to 
decide, but from coal heaver and ani- 
mal trainer we graduated into a place 
in the back room of Mr. Hull's harness 
shop where the fly nets for sll the 
horses in North America were made. 
Say, do you remember that old shop? 
38 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

Located where Doll's Cafe is now? 
Well, if you don't, you are not a 
blown-in-thQ-bottle Oskaloosa boy. 
The badge of honor and the crown of 
glory belongs exclusively to those who 
twisted and plaited while Capt. Mar- 
tin, Tom Magee and Pete Ladynski 
cut the leather strings. Glory be, 
what great days those were! 



39 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 



Chapter IX -Base Ball 

Have you noticed those dolls, dress- 
ed like clowns, that have been on dis- 
play in the shop windows from time 
to time? Well, if you have not, it is 
conclusive evidence that there are no 
children in the family. Otherwise 
you would have had them pointed out 
to you, and long since you would have 
separated yourself from ?2.00 for one 
of them, — or at least $1.50 after they 
had been marked down to cost plus 
fifty per cent. 



But that is not what we started out 
to say. Somehow every time we see 
one of those clowns we think of 
"Boiler" Wray as he first came into 
our recollections. "Boiler" is none 
other than Charley Wray, the jovial 
janitor of the Jefferson school. But, 
as we first knew him, he wore a suit 
of ticking and played second base in 
the Second ward school nine. Sec- 
ond ward also included the High 
school, and in those days it was a 
real high school, being located on the 
fourth floor of the old building that 
was recently wrecked to make room 
for the present structure. 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

There have been other ball players 
on the local horizon, Including Pipes 
and Hutchinson, and Tally and Pat- 
terson, and Scott, — not forgetting 
Coats and Bill Tiley — but none of 
them ever played a better game or 
made more fun for the bleachers than 
did Charley Wray in his ticking suit. 
And speaking about ''Boiler" makes 
us think of one time when he and Joe 
Stumps and Charley Hadley and Tim 
Barnes and a lot of others of the "old- 
er crowd" were playing whip-cracker 
and induced us to be the cracker, 
when the line got under full way, we 
could not touch bottom and finally 
landed in Lundy's cinder pile. We 
also recall that we were pretty badly 
scratched and bruised, but in looking 
back now we are glad that cinder pile 
was there. Otherwise we might be 
going yet. 



Along about this same time we also 
remember there was nothing south of 
Fifth avenue except the school and 
corn fields. The common was used 
for cow pasture except when Yankee 
Robinson or P. T. Barnum drove 
across from Beacon and pitched their 
circus tents there. Then the cows 
41 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 



had to stay at home. We were al- 
ways glad to have these gentlemen 
come to town for two reasons. One 
was to see the circus and flie other 
was because we would get a vacation 
'from driving cows to pasture and 
then home again. But it has often 
been a debatable question in our mind 
which was the harder job, driving old 
bossy, or carrying water for the ele- 
phant. 



Then came the Rock Island railway 
and the row of new houses built by 
the late William Burnside and we had 
to go avvay out "behind Pike's" to 
get enough room to play ball. Mr. 
Pike lived over on Sixth avenue and 
there was a fine place south of his 
home. There's where we first re- 
member seeing Charley Pike, — or C. 
C. Pike, the family druggist, — and we 
have never been sorry that we formed 
his acquaintance. Back of the ball 
grounds was a cemetery and when the 
ball went that far we never could get 
any of the colored boys to go and 
help hunt it. Tradition had it that 
there were ghosts there, and that the 
spirits of the departed came back and 
held consultations under the old wild 

42 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

crabapple trees. We never saw any 
of the apparitions but we remember 
getting an awful shaking up for going 
over there and filling our pockets with 
the measly fruit, after Mr. Seerley 
had forbidden us. And that is not 
the only thing we got either, for the 
fruit was green, and oh, what an in- 
ternal disturbance! 

Industry and enterprise followed 
the railway, and Wiley Wray, the 
father of Charley and Wm. Wray, es- 
tablished a feeding station for hogs 
along the tracks on South B street. 
Two big posts were set up to carry 
the great gate, and we can recall 
mounting the pillars and basking in 
the sunshine while w^atching Mr. 
Wray feed his hogs. One day after 
a heavy rain the hogs stampeded and 
upset Mr. Wray, one of them stepping 
in his mouth. He actually righted 
things and spat the mud out without 
swearing a single swear. 



The Rock Island also established s 
round house and turn table in Oska- 
loosa, but later on removed them to 
Evans. We presume the move was 

43 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

made to save the income tax as no 
other plausible excuse was ever offer- 
ed. But anyway while the turn table 
was still here there was a big circus 
in town one day, and for some reason 
nearly all the circus cars had to be 
turned about to get them out of town. 
Boylike, the late Frank Holtman was 
helping, and was locking the table 
at the proper time so the cars could 
be run off on the main line. Sudden- 
ly he got his finger in the way, and 
the lock pinched it off. Grasping the 
wound in the other hand he started 
up to Dr. Hoffman's office, followed by 
about fifty or sixty boys. When we 
were all lined up in front of the of- 
fice to see what might happen next, 
along came Charley Palmer breath- 
less and excited. When he finally 
came to enough to speak, he ejaculat- 
ed, "Here is Frank's finger." He 
had picked up the amputated member 
and hurried along with it, thinking it 
might be grown on again, but his ef- 
forts were in vain. 



4t 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter X— Banks 

W. T. Smith and M. T. Williams are 
given credit with being the first 
bankers in Mahaska county, with 
John White a close second in the 
business. But this was in 1855 and 
while there may have been no bank 
prior to that time, money was bor- 
rowed and loaned and interest paid 
and collected, away back yonder 
when the Indian got his with the 
scalping knife, and the gold standard 
prevailed without any sixteen to one 
business and without the aid or con- 
sent of any other nation on earth. 
Money was not hard to carry in those 
days as there was not much to carry. 
But those who had a surplus and did 
not care for the earnings, carried 
their money in specially constructed 
belts. These belts were made of 
chamois skin and were worn next to 
the skin. In addition to serving as 
a safety deposit box, they were also 
said to be good for certain ailments, 
and even obviated the necessity of a 
bath on the part of the owner, as 
bath tubs then were scarce and it 
was not safe to lay the belt down on 

45 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

the bank while the owner went in 
swimming. 



The forerunner of the tin can and 
the fruit jar or the more modern 
sitting room stove, as a banking 
house, was the liaystack. At least 
that seems to be true of Mahaska 
county. Manoah Hedge relates in 
his interesting history that Wesley 
Mettler was one of the industrious 
citizens of Oskaloosa in the earlier 
years. He was somewhat eccentric, 
but not wanting in persistent econo- 
my. At one time when his frugality 
had rewarded him with several hun- 
dred dollars in silver coin, he depos- 
ited it for safe keeping in an old 
iron teakettle in the back shed 
kitchen. One morning he was cha- 
grinned to find that some thief with a 
vein of generosity in his nature had 
lieved him of just one-half his treas- 
ure. Some years afterward he found 
himself custodian of more than two 
thousand dollars in gold coin. He 
owned a good-sized farm at that time, 
ijust northwest of where the First 
ward school building is now located. 
With his usual caution he sought a 
secure hiding place for his hard 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

earnings. This time he secreted the 
yellow metal under a near-by hay- 
stack ^Yhe^e he was sure no one but 
himself would think of looking for 
money. Occasionally he slipped 
cautiously over to the place to ex- 
perience the peculiar satisfaction 
there is in handling a much prized 
treasure. All unconscious to him- 
self, his movements had attracted at- 
tention and one night his money Vv^as 
stolen. This seemed more than he 
could bear, and he mentioned his 
loss to a few of his friends, among 
them ex-Sheriff Dan Swearingen. To 
him he gave every clue of which he 
had an3^ knowledge, and offered him 
one-half of the beautiful gold pieces 
if he would by any means secure the 
money. He did not care for the 
thief. Mr. Swearingen was not 
long unraveling the mystery and the 
money was restored. Hard as it 
was to part with the coin, the divis- 
ion was made. A thousand dollars 
was a dear lesson, but Mr. Mettler, 

was exceedingly pleased to have re-\ 
covered so generous a portion of his v 
earnings with which to begin his old \ 
business again. 



One evening in 1844 when M. P. 
47 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

Crowder, father of Dr. W. L. Crowd- 
er, was returning from Oskaloosa fol- 
lowing an Indian trail, he noticed a 
horseman coming toward him and 
could readily see from the careless 
manner of the rider that it was a 
white man. So he waited for him. 
The two men had never met before, 
but after some conversation each 
learned that the other belonged to 
the same common brotherhood of 
homeseekers in the New Purchase. 
There was almost no reserve among 
strangers in those days. There was 
a kindred fellowship that made each 
confide in the other. Mr. Crowder 
told him he was opening a new home 
over on Middle Creek and asked the 
stranger of his plans. He said he 
was building a mill on Skunk river 
north of Oskaloosa but lacked sixty 
dollars of having enough money to 
purchase the necessary machinery to 
equip the mill. The idea of having 
a mill so near to himself and his 
neighbors appealed so strongly to 
Mr. Crowder that he said, without a 
moment's hesitation, not even know- 
ing the stranger's name, that he had 
that amount of money in the house 
with which he had intended to enter 
48 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

his land as soon as it came into mar- 
ket, and that if the stranger would 
return the money when needed he 
would let him have it to use for so 
laudable a purpose. The stranger 
went home with his newly made 
friend and the evening was spent in 
a pioneer conference. The next 
morning Mr. Crowder counted out tc 
his guest, who proved to be Mr. 
George Duncan, sixty-five dollars in 
silver. Sixty-five dollars was a 
snug sum of money in that day, es- 
pecially when it had been sacredly 
laid aside for the purpose of purchas- 
ing a home for the family. No obli- 
gations or specified rate of interest 
vvere thought of by Mr. Crowder in 
making this loan. He simply thought 
of the unmeasured advantage of a 
near-by grist mill to the whole com- 
munity and to his own family. Mr 
Duncan went to Burlington and com- 
pleted the purchase of the necessary 
machinery for his mill. 



In 1848, James Woods, who lived 
over on Middle Creek, came over to 
Samuel Coffin's to borrow some 
money. He found Mr. Cofhn some 
miles from home breaking prairie. 

49 D 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

Mr. CofRn told him he did not have 
time to go to the house to get him 
the money, but if he would go over 
to the house he would find a package 
of money in a particular corner of 
the smoke house. Take from the 
package the sum he wanted and put 
the rest back where he got it. No 
note or obligation whatever was giv- 
en. S. L. Pomeroy was administra- 
tor of the Coffin estate and says this 
was a fair sample of the business 
methods of this large-hearted man. 
He aimed to deal in that way only 
with men of veracity and his losses 
were not overly large. 



And even after the banks were 
started and in good running order, we 
have been told that there were citi 
zens who continued to hide their 
money under rafters in the barn, un 
der the rag carpet in the parlor, and 
behind the kitchen clock, while not 
a few, contrary to the advice of their 
bankers, bought gold bricks and blue 
sky. And even to this day, human 
iaatvie has not changed its habits 
much. 



50 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter XI- Soft Soap 

A bridal party stopping in.Oskaloosa 
in 1856 is recorded as writing home 
the following description of the best 
room in our best hotel: "The floor 
was covered with a dirty rag carpet, 
and a half burned candle furnished 
our only light. There was no wash 
stand in the room, but instead a 
wash-pan placed on a common 
chair, with a saucer of soft soap be- 
side it." Rather primitive, we must 
admit, but if the rag carpet was dir- 
ty the landlady must have been sick, 
as dirt had no place in the life of the 
pioneer women. 



And lest we forget! Do you re- 
member how soft soap was made? 
No? Well, then, you need enlighten- 
ment. Nobody's education should 
be neglected to a point of ignorance 
in this once thriving industry. The 
first step in the process of manu- 
facture was to saw and split the 
"nice dry hard wood" that used to be 
delivered as green as the first straw- 
berries that come onto the market 
in March or April. Everj'body bum- 
51 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 



ed VN'Ood. It was indecent not to dc 
so. The ashes were needed. They 
were essential to the industry, and 
were carefully preserved in covered 
barrels. Surplus tallow, poor lard 
and "cracklins" were also carefully 
preserved all winter, usually in a 
large metal tank. Iln the spring, 
v/hen every barrel in town was full 
of ashes, and the smell of the "crack- 
lins" went beyond endurance, the 
real business of making soft soap be- 



The thrifty person had bored holes 
in the bottoms of his barrels and set 
them up on a slightly inclined plat- 
form. The other fellow had to 
dump his ashes out on the ground, 
bore the holes and then restore the 
ashes to the barrel. In any event, 
the next move v/as to prop the bar- 
rel up a little on the low side of the 
inclined platform and begin to pour 
water on the ashes. Only those 

who have lived in the maple syrup 
country, and have gene into ecstacies 
over the first shov/ing of sap in the 
spring, can appreciate the joy that 
took possession of the good woman 
when the ashes became thoroughly 
52 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

saturated and the lye began to 
trickle through the holes in the bot- 
tom of the barrel, then down the plat- 
form and into the big crock made 
especially for that purpose. 



If this lye would not float an egg, 
with more than half the egg above 
sea level, it was not strong enough 
for the purpose intended. Of course 
the first lye that came through was 
always very strong, but the egg was 
kept in the crock all the while. When 
the port holes began to touch the 
danger line, the supply of water was 
cut off, and the first part of the 
process was considered finished. 
Then the "cracklins" were brought 
out. A windy day was, if possible, 
selected for this procedure so that 
the soap makers could get on the 
tv'indward side of the tank and 
thereby be able to stand the press- 
ure better. Into a large iron kettle 
set up on stakes, with a good dirt 
fireplace below, the tank was emp- 
tied, and as soon as possible the lye 
was poured over the "cracklins" as 
the lye had a tendency to counteract 
the odors. Of course there was no 
health department in Oskaloosa 

53 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

then, but there was a due sense of 
justice to one's neighbors among the 
early settlers, and human endurance 
had a limit, even in those early days. 



Then the fire was started and wat- 
er added to the mixture and in the 
course of from 24 to 4S hours a 
great kettle full of the stuif that en- 
abled one to get next to Godliness 
was ready for use. A basin of wat- 
er out of the rain water barrel, — 
with the wiggle tails wiggling in it, 
— and a little dab of soft soap would 
take the dirt off all right. Also the 
hide. That's the reason we always 
objected to washing behind fhe ears, 
or below the collar linp. 



But the soap kettle and the spin- 
ning wheel went into the past side 
by side, and Pears' soap sent Ivory 
floating down the stream of time, 
while Fels Naptha caught the Gold 
Dust Twins napping. But just the 
same, and notwithstanding, it has 
not been so very long ago since we 
saw them making soft soap down in 
Van Buren county, the cradle of Iowa 
civilization. Down where some do 

54 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

not know to this day that Lee has 
surrendered or that John Rowley, the 
versatile editor of the 10 column 10 
point Keosauqua Republican was not 
elected governor of Iowa on an anti- 
expansion platform. 



55 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 



Chapter XII— High^vays 

We have witli us today the Great 
White Way, The Daniel Boone Trai'., 
The Saints' Highway, and the White 
Pole Route, with more to come — 
when we raise the necessary funds 
to paint the poles. Keeping this ob- 
ligation in mind, it is interesting to 
go back to the beginning of things. Of 
course we do not mean, away bacl-i 
there, where Moses could take his 
telescope and locate the original 
paths through the wilderness, but 
back to the time when the Herald was 
started and kept a record of things 
that have later been so ably and so 
nicely retold by Manoah Hedge in his 
histories. The one signal fact stands 
out in bold relief that Oskaloosa has 
ever and anon been a good roads 
center, at least there has always been 
much talk on the subject around the 
stove, or the radiator, as the case 
may be, in winter time. The first 
essential of every great project is 
public opinion, and Oskaloosa has 
been working on this for about 75 
years. 



Anyhow, during the year of the 
§6 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

flood, when the roads were quite like 
they still all are, there was great in- 
terest in the building of plank roads 
in this part of Iowa, especially be- 
tween Burlington and Oskaloosa. 
The old Herald files are filled with 
notices of public meetings for that 
purpose all along the line. Oska- 
loosa was at that time very promi- 
nently considered as a most suitable 
location for the state capital. We 
even got so far along as to have the 
State Fair here one season. A cor- 
respondent of the Burlington Gazette 
of March 19, 1852, has this to say on 
that subject: 

"Oskaloosa, the point to which all 
now centers by common consent, is 
knov^^n to be one of the healthiest 
and most beautiful inland towns in 
the west. It can easily be made the 
focus of all the stage lines in the 
state ,and, as if nature were destined 
to do for her what the state has 
blindly failed to do, it is a positive 
fact that no less than one railroad 
from Muscatine and two plank roads 
from Burlington, the one through 
Keokuk county and the other through 
Fairfield, are now pushing onward 
tov/ard Oskaloosa, making her their 
57 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

declared destination. These facts, 
which are well known, if none others, 
would prompt us to select Oskaloosa 
for the future seat of government." 



In the days of the stage coach dur- 
ing the '50s and early '60s Oskaloosa 
was a quite important station on the 
routes north and westward. For sev- 
eral years there were no stages or 
regular conveyances of any kind. A 
hack line ran to Fairfield. When 
the business grew Fink & Walker ran 
a stage twice a week to points down 
nearer to the river. Then came 
the Western Stage Company. The 
unbridged streams and sloughs made 
staging a difficult task, but the pror- 
its were large and the company be- 
came wealthy. The time between 
Oskaloosa and the river was from 
one to two days. When the roads 
were good, passengers could leave 
Oskaloosa in the evening and take 
breakfast in Des Moines. 



There was a line of stages running 
up the river from Keokuk through 
Oskaloosa to Des Moines and from 
this point also directly north to Mar- 
shalltown. Another line left Wash- 
58 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

ington and followed the divide west- 
ward, crossing the north and south 
line at Oskaloosa and going on to 
Knoxville and the west. The stage 
barns of the Western Stage Com- 
pany stood where the Young Men's 
Christian Association building now 
stands and the residence of the 
manager and agent of the company, 
Richard Lonsberry, was just across 
the street south. The old stage 
coaches cam^ and went in those days 
with stately dignity and precision. 



A faithful stage driver felt the re- 
sponsibility of his charge as much as 
the modern conductor of a passenger 
train, and he ranked with that unself- 
ish class of public servants. Occa- 
sionally a faithful stage driver went 
out with his precious load of passen- 
gers and U. S. mail never to return. 
Settlements were scarce and the long 
drives in the bitter cold weather were 
too much for even the hardiest na- 
tures. Public anxiety and sympathy 
was always keenly alive for the wel- 
fare of these heroic men in times of 
peril, A belated stage was often 
cheered as it wheeled up to the old 
Madison House. The driver always 
(9 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

alighted with his passengers and 
passed his lines into the hands of the 
hostler, taking them again when he 
stepped up into his airy seat for a 
fresh start. Horses were changed 
every ten or fifteen miles when possi- 
ble and were driven on the gallop be- 
tween stations when the road per- 
mitted. 



Then followed the day of the "prai- 
rie schooners" and the emigration to 
"bleeding Kansas." Remember the 
ox-teams and the covered wagons? 
They often had eight cylinders but 
the driver aboard the back of the 
leading cylinder never succeeded in 
getting much speed out of the ma 
chine. But what was the hurry? 
The slower they went the less time 
they had to put in in Kansas, before 
returning with the legend painted on 
their tattered canvas backs, "In God 
We Trusted, — In Kansas We Busted.' 



60 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter XIII— Factories 

We have often wondered in these 
days of "all wool" clothing who picks 
all the burs out of the wool. Did 
you ever tackle that job? Such a 
question would be wholly unneces- 
sary if you had been a boy in Oska- 
loosa during the palmy days of Levi 
Hambleton or I. Frankel. Few of 
them escaped. In those days there 
must have been a high protective tar- 
iff on wool as there were a lot ol 
sheep in Mahaska county. And a 
lot of cockle burs also. And 
cockle burs and wet weather and 
sheep's tails made an awful combin- 
ation. It was also an unwritten law, 
— made to hold trade — that when the 
sheep were sheared, it was permiss- 
able to do it in the mud and let the 
soil and cockle burs go with the 
wool. But the burs would not go 
with the agents of the eastern wool- 
en mills, so the stickers had to be re- 
moved. No amputations or surgical 
operations were permissable, anr- 
burs had to be extracted by hand, no 
difference how sore the fingers might 
be. Talk about husking corn, — that 

61 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

is play beside the old-fashioned gin- 
ning process for wool. 



We don't remember what the un- 
ion scale was, but we got so much 
per thousand by measure for the 
burs. It was too hard work to 
count them. And we recall having 
cleared 35 cents one week, besides all 
the fun we had, at our own expense. 
After the stickers were all removed 
and paid for, the wool had to be 
packed in immense sac^ks. These 
were suspended from big holes in 
the upstairs floor and ran down into 
the basement. A little wool was 
dumped in and then it had to be 
tamped down. This tamping busi- 
ness was no joke to the fellow whc 
had to be the tamp — and if our rec- 
ollection serves us right, we were it 
about half the time. Hanging on 
the end of a rope like the monkey on 
a jumping jack, we were hoisted up 
and down by the rest of the force 
until the aforesaid amount of wool 
was packed to a sufficient degree — 
or at least until the rest of the force 
had all the amusement they wanted. 
And believe us, — with the inside of a 
fellow's undershirt and his hair full 

62 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

of greasy wool skinning the cat and 
chinning the elusive center pole down 
in a deep bag on a July day in the 
back end of a ware house with a tin 
roof and no windows was no picnic 
—at least not that kind that the Sun- 
day school kids sigh for. 



After that we reached a stage in 
our career when we thought we 
were some artist, as well as drug- 
gist and bottle washer. It was 
when we worked for Will Mays in 
the room that is now occupied by 
i-'rank Nowles and his smoke factory. 
Will Wells was the prescription 
clerk, and red-headed. We used to 
draw fancy pictures with water col- 
ors and soap on the windows and on 
the big mirror at the rear of the 
store,— also take care of 31 coal oil 
lamps, 91 canary birds, 287 shelf 
bottles, 13 show cases, 18 different 
oil barrels, a stove and Joe Huber's 
cat. But anyhow, some fellows 
standing out in front of the store one 
day, commenced to comment on our 
claims on Fame. One fellow finally 
said, "Rats! Anybody could do that." 
Will Wells and his red hair came 
to our rescue with a 45-centimeter 

63 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

gun and declared tliat "maybe, but 
he is the only fellow around here who 
is doing it," We have often though^ 
of that bit of philosophy and for the 
good we got out of it, have long since 
forgiven Will Wells for making us 
scrub out twice a week whether the 
floor needed it or not. 



It was during our career as first 
and only assistant to the prescription 
clerk that Terry Mays saved our life. 
Terry probably never knew it, but he 
was more of a kid than we were, and 
we agreed to take care of him for 
his mother one afternoon and forego 
an engagement to go coasting. The 
three chums who did go, Jerrel Joyce, 
Clarence Steddman and John Phillips 
came back in pieces as you will re- 
member following the explosion of 
the powder house. If it had not 
been for Terry, we, too, would have 
been there. But what a commotion 
that explosion caused, especially 
around a drug store! Bottles tum- 
bled off the shelves and others 
danced, about like mechanical toys. 
Mr. Mays was sure it was Dr. John- 
son's new air pump apparatus that 
had blown up, while the rest of us 
6i 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

was sure it was the boiler in John- 
son's foundry. Anyway after it was 
over, there never was such a deman '. 
for putty and window glass in Oska- 
loosa. The stock of glass was big- 
ger than that of putty, and it fell to 
our lot to turn the crank of the drug 
mill to make putty out of whiting 
and linseed oil. The novelty of the 
thing appealed to us at first, but af 
ter our back began to ache and our 
hands were blistered, the novelty 
wore off. But the putty sold for 6C 
cents a pound, — and it was worth the 
effort — to those who did not have tc 
turn the crank. 



There is just one other job that we 
want to tell you about and then we 
will promise forever to hold our 
peace. This was as understudy tc 
James McQuiston, who used to op- 
erate the pop and soda department in 
Vernon's restaurant. In those days 
one could not get gas to charge the 
fountains in tubes that look like pic- 
tures of shells for big guns, but had 
to make it in a gas producer. Oper- 
ating this producer was our loni 
suit. We used to take a bucket and 
go over to McCall's marble shop and 

65 E 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

buy a grist of marble aust, which our 
good old friend Henry Taylor would 
weigh out to us. This, and the prop- 
er amount of sulphuric — or maybe it 
was muriatic — at any rate it was 
acid, were put together in a tum- 
bler operated with a crank, and the 
real excitement began. When the 
mixture commenced to foment, or 
whatever the chemical action mignl 
"be called, the pressure gauge begar 
to swell. If it stopped at about SC 
all was well, but if it kept on going 
up, we hiked out the back door to 
await the explosion, if everything die 
not hold tight. After a safe length 
of time, Jim would sneak back and 
ease the pain by opening a valve, and 
then we charged the drums or bot- 
tled the pop as the case might be . 
Whew! What exciting moments 
those were! Ana how good that 
ginger ale tasted which we got in 
full settlement for the performance of 
our part of the contract! 



66 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter XIV-Floods 

We, — all of us, — thought that it 
never rained so muc,h and for so 
long a time as it did last summer, — 
anyway not since the time that Broth- 
er Noah slipped one over on the rest 
of mankind and came out where 
many another fellow since his time 
has tried to land, the lord of all he 
surveyed. But the year 1851 still 
seems to hold the record in Mahaska 
county, notwithstanding the fact thai 
John Crookham says his bottom land 
farm was overflowed eight times be 
tween the first of April and the first 
of November, and spoiled all the 
beans every time. But runing back 
past John's recollections, the rainfall 
throughout Iowa in 1851 was unpre- 
cedented and still stands unmatched 
In this statement we have the back 
ing of Bob Garden, the sage of Tracy, 
W'ho came here long before the flood. 
— of course we mean the Iowa freshet 
— and his evidence is further corro- 
borated and substantiated by the 
files of the Oskaloosa Herald. Unde: 
date of June 7, 1851, the Herald said: 
67 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

"One of the heaviest rains we 
were ever privileged to witness," — 
notice that word 'privileged'." 

We wonder what some of the fel- 
lows along the river banks though 
of Mr. Needham, when he sorted out 
that word, or maybe the printer could 
not make it out and guessed at it, — 
the printers do that sometimes, so wc 
have been told. Well, any way: 

"One of the heaviest rains we were 
ever privileged to witness occurred 
on Wednesday of last week. The 
rain literally fell in torrents for over 
an hour, causing the face of the 
whole country to present the appear 
ance of one vast lake of rushing 
waters. Much damage has been 
done in consequence by the floating 
away of fences, bridges, etc. It Ifl 
said that scarcely a bridge or foot- 
log remains over a stream in the 
whole county." 



There's something else that is 
Greek to a good many today. As many 
as have ever seen a "foot-log" please 
hold up their hands. That will do, 
thank you. And now for the benefit 
of the uninitiated, a foot-iog was r 
big tree that was felled on the side 

68 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

of a creek so it would reach the oth 
er bank and form a bridge. We 
have crossed a number of them, and 
have tried others and landed in the 
mud. But that was no fault of th 
log. And Oskaloosa doesn't need tc 
be so stuck up at that. We can re 
member when there was a foot-log 
on High avenue east across the creel 
that was afterwards named Sixtl" 
street, and one on South Market 
street just south of where the Rock 
Island tracks now run. Then, also 
there used to oe one just east of th- 
Second ward school house on Firtl^ 
avenue. This was the particular one 
on which we had most of our experi 
ence. But going back to the files 
of the Herald of June 7, 1851: 



"The usually staid and sober Des 
Moines has been taking a regular 
'swell," literallj^ tearing down and 
carrying off everything that happen 
ed to come in its current. Not 
satisfied with keeping in its own 
channel, it has made free to invade 
every man's premises in the vicinity, 
in many cases literally driving away 
families domiciled in the neighbor 
hood. It has left its 'mark' on the 

69 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

land near the shore so that the set 
tiers may hereafter know how mucl 
is claimed by it. It is in many places 
from two to four miles wide. A 
number of dwellings were carried en- 
tirely away. This calamity will be 
doubly hard on the sufferers, as i 
has not only destroyed the presen 
crops, but has taken away the old 
crop that was in store for the pres- 
ent season. The Skunk, too, not 
having the fear of men before its 
eyes, has been spreading itself in ev- 
ery direction, taking along with it 
every obstacle that could not with 
stand a perfect rush of sweeping wat 
ers. Judging from appearances on( 
would suppose it determined to de- 
clare itself navigable (without any 
act of legislature) by removing, with 
out the aid of civil law, everything 
calculated to hinder small crafts 
from taking an uninterrupted voyage 
to the Father of Waters. 



"On Saturday, a man named San 
dert De Yong, a native of Holland, 
was drowned near Union Mills.' 

Now, look here, if we had not read 
that in the Herald we would not be- 
lieve it. What on earth could tempt 

70 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

a Hollander to go that far from Pella 
in that early day? Fortunately 
however, the Herald explains that he 
was a bridge carpenter, and probably 
drove over there from Lake Prairie 
township. To resume: 

''He and a number of other men 
were engaged in replacing the floor- 
ing of the bridge when he slipped 
through and perished in the waters 
without the bystanders being able to 
assist him. 

"A young man was drowned in the 
Des Moines river near Fort Des 
Moines on Friday, and tvso small 
boys near Red Rock a few days 
since." 

During this season flour or mea] 
was very difficult to obtain, even in 
Oskaloosa. A pair of burrs or corn 
crackers were bought upon the front 
carriage of a wagon from Agency 
City, and attached to the gearing of 
the saw-mill, which stood on the pres- 
ent site of the Hawkeye Overall fac 
tory building, and here was meal and 
hominy made for the settlement lb 
the midst of this western sea of mud 
and water. 



And speaking about floods, makes 

71 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

us think of an incident that Dr. Hen- 
derson once related to us. When 
the Doctor was actively in the prac- 
tice at Old Muchakinock, he had 
faithful Qolored driver named Wil^ 
liam, but better known as "Doc" 
Southall. The two had been in Os 
kaloosa on business one day, and 
while here it rained some. Return- 
ing home they reached Little Mucha- 
kinock Creek, and a regular sea of 
water spread out before them. Al 
ways faithful and unafraid, "Doc" 
hesitated in taking the rig across 
as no bridge was in sight. Dr. Hen- 
derson asked him if he had lost his 
nerve and was afraid to maKe the 
venture. "No Sah! No Sah!" protest- 
ed "Doc," "I's not afraid and I am 
prepared to met my Lawd, but I hate 
to go. Doctor, I hate to go." "Why 
what's the matter, William?" askec' 
the Doctor. "I never knew you tc 
hesitate on anything before." "Well 
the fack is," said William, "dere's a 
lot of water dere, and I's afraid if we 
done bofe get drownded, and de boss 
get drownded and de buggy get car- 
ied down stream, dere won't be nuffin 
left for Swalm to write up in de Her- 
ald, and nobody will never know what 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

become of us. But I's no quitter 
Doctah, and if you's willin' to sacrifice 
your chances in immortality, here 
goes. Get ap dere, Bess and Jim 
go lang! I 'speck it's jest as hon 
orable to be washed away into eter 
nity as it is to take de smallpox and 
die. Go lang, I say!' And they 
went. 



73 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 



Chapter XV— Supplies 

When we speak of the early days 
in Mahaska county we mean prior to 
the time that Frank Glaze first en- 
gaged in the grocery business in Os- 
kaloosa. So in the early days, it 
was sometimes difficult to telephone 
your order up town and have the 
goods come on the Union Delivery 
in fifteen minutes. What's that? 
You sometimes fail now! Well, 
that's a matter of business and has 
nothing at all to do with history, so 
please ring off, we want to talk to 
a friend on one of the rural lines and 
have only four hours to get the con- 
nection. Get that? If you did, 
that's more than Landlord Cantfield 
did when he ran a hotel here about the 
year one, or possibly fifty-one. Game 
was quite abundant then, and the un- 
disturbed timber yielded a harvest 
of wild fruits, such as has not since 
been known. The substantials were 
pork, corn meal and wheat coffee. 
Even these gave out sometimes. On 
one occasion the boarders at the 
Canfield House had a rather late 
breakfast. It happened this wise: 

74 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



The landlord had noticed his larder 
was running low, but he was in hour- 
ly expectation of supplies from Keo- 
kuk. One evening the pantry was 
bankrupt, but the host was in hopes 
his team would come with provisions 
before morning. But "hope deferred 
maketh the heart sick" at every 
dawn. Wm. D. looked wistfully 
down the divide in vain. He 

mounted a horse and left for Richard 
Perkins', secured a small quantity of 
meal, and half a side of bacon from 
a settler down there and started for 
home. The half dozen hungry 
boarders sat in front of the cabin, 
pining for the flesh pots of civiliza- 
tion, but soon their spirits rose, and 
their mouths began to water, for 
away to the south came the plucky 
landlord, riding like a Jehu, and 
holding aloft the half side of bacon 
as a sign of relief. And this supply 
failed not until other provisions 
came. 



The grandfather of O. C. G. Phil- 
lips was among the first to come to 
Oskaloosa. He realized the fact 
that he was coming to a new coun- 
try, and he resolved to come well 
:5 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

provided. Accordingly he brought 
with him, what he supposed to be a 
sufficient quantity of flour to supply 
his family for an entire year. The 
family came into the village in the 
evening. The news of Phillips' 
abundant supply spread like a prai- 
rie fire, and he had an abundance of 
callers. Everybody came to see 
him. Everybody seemed to appre- 
ciate him. They were all plain- 
spoken people, and were not asham- 
ed to ask for what they wanted; Mr. 
Phillips' levee lasted till bedtime, and 
w?"" continued in the morning until 
breakfast, at which hour he found he 
had loaned out a barrel of flour to 
entire strangers, and it is likely all 
Oskaloosa breakfasted on hot biscuit 
instead of corn-bref^d, which was the 
more common far«i 



It is related that Dr. E. A. Boyer 
and his neighbor, Van Delasbmutt, 
found their supply of meal and flour 
almost exhausted. It was quite im- 
possible to get anywhere because of 
the high water. They heard of a 
corn cracker some eight or ten miles 
up the river and sent W. A. Delasb- 
mutt with four bushels of corn 

7t5 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

packed on two horses. He arrived 
at Mr. Nossman's, the owner of the 
mill, only to find that it was out of 
repair. On learning, however, of 
the pressing need, the mill was doc- 
tored up and by daylight next morn- 
ing Mr. Delashmutt was ready to re- 
turn with his four bushels of ground 
corn. During the day Dr. Boyer no- 
ticed a vessel ascending the river 
loaded with flour. He put out into 
the swollen stream with two men and 
a large canoe. Hailing the steamer, 
he requested the captain to sell him 
a supply of flour. The captain told 
him it had been ordered by the gov- 
ernment for the soldiers at Fort Des 
Moines and he could not sell it. Mr. 
Boyer told him he must have some 
flour if he had to scuttle the boat to 
get it. After some conversation the 
captain agreed to let him have two 
barrels of flour for the privilege of 
loading his vessel with rails which 
were floating about in drifts along the 
river. His vessel had made the trip 
from St. Louis and was short of 
fuel. Mr. Boyer got his flour ashore 
and rolled it up by the side of his 
cabin, covering it with some boards. 
When his friend Van Delashmutt 
77 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 



came over shortly afterwards he took 
him out to show him his prize. He 
could not have been more dumbfound- 
ed if he had been confronted by a 
bear. How two barrels of flour 
could have reached that wilderness 
home unannounced was more than 
he could understand. The true pio- 
neer never enjoys a good thing alone, 
and Mr. Delashmutt got one of the 
mysterious barrels and its welcome 
contents. 



Mrs. Emily J. Coryell states that 
in the very early years when mills 
were so very far away and flour very 
scarce Washington Threlkeld dug oui 
a hard wood stump near his cabin so 
as to form a kind of basin and fas- 
tened an iron wedge to the end of a 
stick, giving it a handle, which he 
used as a pestle to crush shelled 
corn. When the corn was thorough- 
ly beaten it was sifted and the fine 
portion used as meal, while the 
coarse particles were worked up into 
hominy. This contrivance proved to 
be of much value to the neighborhood 
and people came in good numbers to 
use it, taking their turn, just as they 
did at the mill. 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

Then "Benny" Roop came to town 
and started his bottling works which 
was afterwards converted into a flour- 
ing mill, and Oskaloosa people from 
that time on were able to get all the 
food stuff they needed by patroniz- 
ing home industries. Mr. Roop own- 
ed the whole west end of town and 
used most of it for a hog lot, where 
he fattened many fine porkers. He 
fenced off a big section of it, hov\'- 
ever, and built thereon the finest 
home in Iowa up to that time. It 
was a brick mansion, and the ma^ 
terial was all hauled here by team 
from Keokuk. Those were the days 
of prosperity for the "west end," and 
the elite of the city lived west and 
north of the line drawn from the 
Gait House through the "Green Cas- 
tle," to Mr. Roop's mill. But the 
railroad came along and sliced the 
town in two, turned the Roop m.an- 
sion into a hotel and eating house and 
built a depot in the front yard. Even 
before this, Mr. Roop got sore on the 
town and moved to Beacon where he 
built another big mill and among oth- 
er things put a quart of whiskey in 
the corner stone. Some sixty years 
afterwards W. A. Seevers bought the 
79 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

old mill and had it wreclied to make 
miners' houses out of the material. 
And it is recorded that he would not 
speak to anybody for four days af- 
ter some fellow opened the corner 
stone one night and swiped the con- 
tents. 



80 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter XVI-The Press 

A. D. Lasker, a Jewish boy, went 
to Chicago from his home in Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, years ago. The 
story goes that he and his father had 
agreed to disagree over business 
methods, and giving the son $5,000 in 
cash, told him to go to Chicago and 
make his own way. The boy ac- 
cepted the challenge, and upon land- 
ing in v^hicago he rented a room in 
the Congress Hotel and started out 
to look for a job. He finally ran 
across one as office boy for the firm 
of Lord &. Thomas, advertising 
agents. With a job to his credit, Mr. 
Lasker secured a sv\^ell suite at the 
hotel and commenced to live in 
style. The nature of his employ- 
ment leaked out and the newspapers 
got hold of it and he soon became 
known as the "Millionaire Office 
Boy." The publicity was what he 
was after and he got it in big 
chunks. He had to draw on his 
father again, however, before his for- 
tune was made, but it was not long 
until he haa things coming his way 
and he became a stockholder in the 

81 E 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

concern. From that time on pros- 
perity smiled on him, until he is now 
president of the company and lives 
on easy street, which is even better 
than the Congress Hotel. 



Some one will no doubt ask what 
that has to do with a history of Ma- 
haska county. Just sit tight and 
Vm't rock the boat and we will tell 
you. It was this Mr. Lasker, an ac- 
knowledged captain of industry, sit- 
ting in his office one day, whom a 
young man from the country with 
some Iowa dust still sticking in the 
seams of his trousers, approached 
and asked for a job. An average of 
ten or fifteen a week did the same 
thing, and as was his habit, after 
taking down the young man's street 
and number, he was just about to 
say, "I will file your name and if I 
need some one I will send for you." 
But the young man got there first 
and said, "I want a job and I'll get 
you a $40,000 contract within a 
week." Mr. Lasker hesitated, and 
the young man stood pat. "If your 
firm does not care for the business, 

I will take it elsewhere." Here was 

a young man out of the ordinary, 

82 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

and his remarks might have been tak- 
en for impertinence in any other line 
of business, but an advertising man 
is born, not made, and Mr. Lasker 
thought he saw symptoms of one un- 
der the young man's hat. He hire^l 
him for a montli witli the under- 
standing that if he made good he 
would keep him. That was easy as 
the young man had the contract in 
his pocket at the time, and before the 
week was up he sprung it on the firm. 
The result was that Tom Kester, erst- 
while reporter on the old Oskaloosa 
Daily Times, had a steady job, and 
is now vice president and manager 
of one of the biggest advertising 
houses in the world." 



George William Shockley came to 
town in 1883 and in 1884 he organ- 
ized the Mahaska County Old Set- 
tlers' Association, — no, that is not 
a typographical error, the dates are 
as written. He was secretary for a 
long time and is now president of the 
Oskaloosa Country Club, and when 
other pressing social engagements 
will permit he plays golf. He is al- 
so president of the Oskaloosa Chau- 
tauqua association, a member of the 

83 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

K. of P. lodge, ex-Worthy Patron of 
the Order of Eastern Stars, goes to 
the Methodist church and in his leis- 
ure hours he edits the Saturday 
Globe. But he carries his cares 
well, and when he cannot get away 
to go back to his old home in New 
Vienna, Ohio, for a rest, he gets 
recreation by telling what he thinks 
of certain members of the legislature 
who voted against a state appropria- 
tion for the Iowa building at the Pan- 
ama Pacific Exposition in San Fran- 
cisco. He has two good running mates 
in Tom Shockley and I. W. Cook, and 
we want to say right here and now 
without any qualification, that these 
three fellows have given of their 
time and talents to public affairs in 
Oskaloosa, in a measure exceeded by 
no other three in our recollections. 



And since we have drifted into 
newspaper row we might as we'! 
take a shot at H. J. Vail. He is 
several thousand miles away and we 
can dodge if he shoots back. There 
may have been more brilliant and 
more conspicuous editors in the har- 
ness in Mahaska county than Mr. 
Vail, but we do not recall a better 
84 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

example of the real successful coun- 
try editor. He started the Star at 
New Sharon, when New Sharon could 
not be found on the map witn a field 
glass. He made a success of it, ac- 
cumulated some money, caught the 
California fever, sold out and went 
west. He established the Pasadena 
Star and run a metropolitan paper as 
long as the first boom lasted. When 
the bottom fell out of California, af- 
ter the gold had all been picked up 
out of the gravel, Mr. Vail found him- 
self stranded with an elephant news- 
paper plant on his hands. He sold 
out, — or more properly speaking, 
gave it away — and came back to 
Iowa. He got a fresh start and got 
ambitious again and went to Ottum- 
wa to edit the Ottumwa Daily Press. 
The venture proved too big an under- 
taking for Ottumwa, and Mr. Vail 
again returned to New Sharon and 
bought back his old paper, the New 
Sharon Star. Here he made anoth- 
er fortune, but this time was wiser 
than before, curbed his ambitions and 
retired from business. He is now 
enjoying the fruits of his labor and 
living in California again, almost 
within a stone's throw of the Pasa- 

8S 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

dena Star which he started years 
ago. And while the Pasadena Star 
is now rated as a $200,000 property, 
Mr. Vail is happier and enjoys life 
more, than he would if he owned the 
plant. 



86 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter XVII- Courts 

The first court ever held in Mahas- 
ka county was convened in July, 1844, 
by Judge Joseph Williams of Musca- 
tine, according to the musty docu- 
ments in "Billy" Martin's office. 
This v^'as a few years before George 
Baugh became mayor of Oskaloosa. 
They used to call him "Long George" 
and we supposed he got the nickname 
because of his size, as he was six fete 
four and wore a stove-pipe hat that 
added another foot or two to his 
stature, but we afterwards came to 
the conclusion that he was called long 
because of his extended term in of- 
fice. He served the city about forty- 
eight years in all, as near as we can 
remember. Mr. Baugh was inclined 
to be deli Derate and easy going, but 
a terror to evil doers just the same. 
Our first experience in newspaper 
work was telling of the human inter- 
est stories that were unraveled in his 
court, and some most amusing inci- 
dents cropped up as Mr. Baugh nev- 
er overlooked the humorous trend or 
the ridiculous side of life. 
87 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

Charley Kline, an eccentric Ger- 
man, was inclined to fracture the or- 
dinances pretty often, and was up 
before "his honor" for the third time 
in one week. Mr. Kline was good 
at telling stories and he started in 
on Mr, Baugh when the mayor did not 
care to listen. He tried several times 
to check the flow of language but to 
no avail, when suddenly bringing the 
book of ordinances down with a 
thump upon the desk, he exclaimed: 
"Ah, Charley, you make me tired!" 
"Well, your honor," came the quick 
reply, "I was fatigued mineself," and 
with that the Mayor fined him $2 and 
costs, but suspended judgment if the 
prisoner at the bar would leave the 
premises and not talk to anybody for 
twenty-four hours. Charley prom- 
ised but he fell from grace when he 
started down stairs and began telling 
himself what he thought of the mayor 
and the town and the country in gen- 
eral. 



But speaking about the city admin- 
istrations, that we have known, makes 
us think that Woman Suffrage was in 
evidence in this man's town many 
83 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

years ago. It was even before our 
time but we have it on good authority 
that Nancy Smith was once elected 
mayor of Oskaloosa. It happened in 
this wise. The two male candidates 
for mayor at the spring election had 
both incurred the ill will of a num- 
ber of voters. They organized and 
voted for Nancy and elected her may- 
or. But, as we said just a moment 
ago, this was before our recollection, 
so it was also prior to the thorough 
organization of Mahaska county for 
Suffrage, as perfected by Mrs. Dev- 
itt, Mrs. Reid and Miss Dunlap, with 
I. N. Taylor as member of the Advisory 
Committee. Naturally, the senti- 
ment lacked backbone in those days 
and Nancy was not ambitious, so the 
honor was passed to the next highest 
candidate, and Oskaloosa lost the op- 
portunity of its lifetime to be the 
first town in the world to have a wo- 
man for mayor. But opportunity 
may knock again, John J. Ingalls to 
the contrary notwithstanding. John 
never knew the temper of a real for 
sure Suffrage organization. 



Going back to "Long George," do 

89 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

you remember the fire engine by 
that name? It was during one of 
Mr. Baugh's earliest administrations 
that the old volunteer fire depart- 
ments fell into innocuous desuetude, 
and the city sold the little pump guns 
that had done valiant service for 
many years, and which had by the 
races they promoted engendered more 
excitement in Oskaloosa than any- 
thing before cr since has done, un- 
less it was the circulation and with- 
drawal and reinstatement of the mulct 
petitions. But Prohibition has noth- 
ing to do with what we started out 
to say. Several big cisterns were 
dug about town, and a steam fire 
engine was purchased. It worked 
admirably until the nearest cistern 
was emptied and a change of venue* 
became necessary. Then the fire 
generally took advantage of the situ- 
ation and proceeded to satisfy its 
hunger with renewed vigor. Mr, 
Baugh persuaded the city to sink an 
artesian well, from which sufficient 
water might be secured for the city 
water works. This was another 
"long" undertaking. The hole un- 
der the bandstand is 2600 feet deep, 
90 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

and cost so much money that some of 
the present day bonds were given to 
refund the ones incurred by digging 
the well. 



But the fire engine and cisterns 
kept on doing business until the pres- 
ent water works plant was establish- 
ed on Skunk river, and the controver- 
sy over fire pressure started. Some 
times we wish the city had that old 
fire engine yet. If it had, its pres- 
ence might relieve the pressure on 
the mains and we would not have to 
have our plumbing repaired after ev- 
ery fire. And say, did you ever 
hear the stories of heroic work done 
at fires in times past? They are as 
rich as any fish stories ever told 
along the banks of old Skunk, or on 
the main highways to town, or to the 
v/ives who kept the suppers warm 
long after the piscatorial devotees had 
promised to be home. Like to hear 
some of them; Well, you'll have to 
ask some one else. We have too 
much regard for our head. The roof 
is not very well thatched any more, 
and besides we do not want to lose 
any of our best friends. This we do 

91 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

know, however, that when C. Huber 
& Brother's hardware store was on 
fire, one bitter cold night, some fel- 
lows carried a dozen kegs of nails 
down a long stairway, and threw an 
equal number of boxes of glass out 
of the second story window. Ever 
see anything like that at a fire? 



92 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter XVIII -Stage 

Once upon a time, — (and no history 
is complete that does not have at 
least one chapter beginning this way) 
— so, once upon a time, a home talent 
entertainment was being given at the 
Masonic opera house. It was the 
Fairy Queen, and Mrs. Virginia 
Knight Logan was the queen. With 
all her many musical accomplish- 
ments, Mrs. Logan does not play a 
cornet, so when in the program of 
the play it became necessary for her 
to call the fairies from their slum- 
bers with the cornet, it had been ar- 
ranged that she should place the in- 
strument to her lips, and that Horace 
Shadel would make the music behind 
the scenes. Everything worked fine 
until Mr. Shadel overlooked his cue 
and kept on playing after Mrs. Logan 
had put down the instrument, and 
had taken up her other lines in the 
play. 



Upon another occasion a traveling 
troop was producing "Keep it Dark," 
when a big plug at the old power 
93 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

house blew out and they really kept 
it dark the rest of the evening. Many 
attribute this phenomenon, or acci- 
dent, to the fact that a strange black 
cat wandered across the stage just 
before the lights went out. Be that 
as it may, it had nothing to do with 
another amusing incident at another 
home talent entertainment, "The 
Union Spy," put on for the benefit of 
Company F. Perry Welker took the 
part of a Confederate officer and in 
a terrible sham battle he was shot 
uown and lay stiff in death when the 
curtain was rung down. His cap had 
rolled out almost to the foot lights, 
and Perry noticed that wlien the cur- 
tain came down it would separate 
him from his head gear. As the 
play v/as to be reproduced the next 
night. Perry wanted to make sure of 
all his paraphernalia, so he reached 
out and snatched his cap under cover. 
The play was good, but some in the 
audience were mean enough to say 
that Perry's quick action was the rich- 
est thing on the evening's program. 



Speaking about the "Union Spy" re- 
minds us that we had a part in the 

94 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

play, — being perfectly at home as a 
member of the awkward squad under 
the leadership of Charley Walling. 
Now it so happened that Tad Shipley 
and your humble servant were 
brought up on adjoining lots. Tad 
could not help it, and upon arriving 
at the maturity he moved to another 
part of town. But the "Union Spy" 
was pulled off while Tad was still 
young, just big enough to boast ol 
his first long pants. We had the ad- 
vantage of him in size, so in order to 
look as awkward as possible — or more 
properly a little more awkward than 
usual — we borrowed a suit of Tad's 
clothes. "The first long pants" came 
up almost to our knees, and the 
sleeves of the coat almost to the el- 
bow. The coat v/ould not meet in 
front and aside from Orison Button, 
Harry Hale, Ralph Proudfit and Grant 
Cowgill, we got the plaudits of being 
the most awkward one in the squad 
of six. But take a look at Tad now^ 
and imagine if you can that he was 
once smaller than we are. What re- 
markable stunts time will perform! 



After the war was over and the Un- 

95 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

ion Spy had put down the rebellion, 
and Fred Logan had been safely re- 
moved from the new water pipe into 
which he had crawled and stuck, 
Company F was to have inspection, 
and Capt. Ira Stoddard, or Captain 
Frank Stone, — we are not sure which 
it was, — maybe it was Fiske — but at 
any rate the orders were issued to 
shine up all the company property. 
Grant Truax was a member of the 
company and as he lived out in the 
country along the Des Moines river, 
he was given permission to take his 
accouterments home with him to be 
cleaned up. In those days we had 
the old Springfield rifles with long 
bright barrels and bayonets, and 
clean-up day meant some work. But 
^jrrant was equal to the occasion and 
as the farm work was in hand he 
turned his talents on the gun and he 
came in for inspection with his gun 
polished from end to end. He had 
even scraped and sand-papered the 
blue burnish off the lock and ham- 
mer, and admitted that that part was 
an unusually hard job. We were to 
have a Regular Army officer for in- 
spector and there was consternation 

96 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

in the camp over the performance of 
Mr. Truax. Grant, however, was 
again equal to the occasion and just 
before we formed in line to go on dis- 
play he exchanged guns with George 
Hale. The officer came along in 
great dignity and holding up George's 
gun in dudgeon he expostulated: 
"What have you been doing to this 
rifle?" Quick as a flash came the an- 
swer: "I guess that's the one the 
Union Spy shot the Rebel Corporal 
with." The humor of the situation 
melted the officer's icicles, and if he 
had intended to send George to the 
guard house, he relented, and went 
on to the next man. 



And no history of local military af- 
fairs would be complete without men- 
tion of Company F's tramp to Ottum.- 
wa, under Colonel Swalm's paternal 
care. Captain Keating and the com- 
pany later had some rough experi 
ences in the Philippines, but the vet- 
erans would never have been equai 
to the occasion had some of them not 
been hardened to the work by the 
tramp to Ottumwa. And it was here 
limelight, — or more properly speak 
97 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

ing, the camp light. It was a fixed 
custom that upon the last night in 
camp there was to be a "shirt-tail pa- 
rade." Every fellow who was not 
in the hospital or guard house was 
expected to fall in line, with nothing 
on but a shirt and take part in the 
"dress parade." On that particular 
occasion the boys got George to car- 
ry the bass drum and they strapped 
it on him securely. When the offi- 
cers came out to put an end to the 
fun, George started back to his tent 
post haste. He stumbled over a 
guy rope, rolled over the drum and 
ran his head into the sand. His 
bare legs stuck up like specters in the 
night, and there he remained until 
the relief guard came to his rescue. 
But the officers never found out who 
he was. 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 



Chapter XIX— The Finish 

Some funny things have happened 
in Oskaloosa when one takes an im- 
partial and unbiased review of the 
past. For instance, the first church 
building ever erected in town was 
turned into a broom factory and ev- 
ery vestage of its early mission was 
swept away. Then the original 
Quaker church, built by people who 
are constitutionally opposed to war, 
was turned into an armory for Com- 
pany F. Miles Prine was once a 
chef on a Mississippi steamboat, and 
Frank Christie, with a pate that 
would qualify in any front row, de- 
lights to stand behind his barber's 
chair and tell his customer how much 
benefit may be derived from a certain 
brand of hair restorative, j. B. Doll 
tells of a stingy man he used to 
knovv% back in Rushville, Indiana, who 
went up town and bought a nickle's 
worth of apples, and then whistled all 
the way home to keep from eating 
any of them. But that has nothing 
occasion demanded quick action and 
Mr. Loring advised that something 
be done "simultaneously, altogether, 
and at once!" 

99 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

Every time we see John Mattison 
we think of the time we tried to set 
up a tent on Skunk river in a rain 
storm, and after we liad turned it 
over three or four times it lield water 
like a sieve. Ernie Cunningham and 
Harry Shipley were along, and the 
only pleasant recollections of the 
whole excursion was the custard that 
Ernie's mother had made and which 
was saved by turning a bucket up- 
side down over it. And what a joy 
camping used to be among the big 
catfish ponds that bred sand flies and 
mosquitoes, over the river from the 
mouth Oi Painter Creek. But in ear- 
lier days there must have been some 
thing worse than mosquitoes. Major 
Lacey in an address at Eveland, 
which he says was named after the 
original mother of us all, years ago 
said: "Some of the old settlers may 
remember the 'Prairie Digs' of the 
early day. When I was seventeen I 
made my debut in life by attempting 
to teach school. I boarded around, 
and at the opening of school the 'digs' 
were confined to a single family. But 
the close of the school showed how 
good a mixer the teacher was. The 
whole neighborhood was digging." 

100 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

Admiral Frank Fletcher, the su- 
preme head of tho United States 
Navy, got his feet wet and "took to 
water" along old Spring Creek, when 
that stream did not belie its name by 
going dry every summer. And short- 
ly after the first typewriter was 
bought for the court house, a bill 
came before the board of supervisors 
for a "ribbon for the typewriter." It 
is said that R. W. Moore was willing 
to admit that she was a nice little 
girl but he thought it was going too 
far to buy her ribbons. Then anoth- 
er time J. B. Bolton was telling Judge 
Dev^^ey what the law was, "Where 
did you find that statute?" asked the 
Judge. "In the annointed code of 
Iowa," came the reply. And back in 
Judge J. Kelley Johnson's time, a col- 
ored man by the name of Patterson 
was brought into court for some of- 
fence. When asked by the Judge if 
he wished a lawyer, he replied, "No, 
sah. If yo' honoh please, I's had 
troubles enuf already." 



Maetta J. Evans, whom at school 
we called "May," possibly because of 
her resemblance to the merry month 
of that name, was so precise that the 
rest of us used to feel abashed. But 

101 



ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 

think of her now writing fiction for 
the magazines! And they say Jeff 
Harbour used to crochet as good as 
any of the girls at Beacon, yet he 
grew up to be the editor of the Youth's 
Companion, Woods Hutchinson 

could not play shinny or skate for 
sour apples when we knew him at 
Penn college, yet there is not a maga- 
zine in the country which would not 
take his stuff now at a price that 
would m.ake the rest of us whistle. 
Robert Meredith, who went around 
the world on sixty dollars, once slept 
on a wagon tongue, and could qualify 
for that many thousand in a pinch. 
Major S. H. M. Byers, who leaped in- 
to fame by his Sherman's March to 
the Sea, used to wade knee deep in 
rnud as a boy in Oskaloosa, and play 
marbles with Col. Al Swalm, until the 
latter became a devil — in the Herald 
office. Professor Warman, who went 
hatless in winter time and yelled 
"Yaw! Hoo!" at five o'clock in the 
morning, is still busy in Los An- 
geles, and says he is going to help 
bury the last of the G. A. R, — that is 
the last one except himself. Then 
there are Listen McMillen and Rob- 
ert Kissick who have written books, 
and Lou Shangle who once wrote a 

102 



OF MAHASKA COUNTY 

brief for the United States supreme 
court. Carrie McAyeal Ogilvie, who 
is editor of the Midwestern Magazine 
of Des Moines, got her training in try- 
ing to teach this young idea how to 
shoot. Entered then Mai Rose, the 
sweet singer of today, whose life has 
been burdened almost beyond meas- 
ure, and yet whose verses breathe 
the air of spring eternal and radiate 
perennial joy. 



But, gracious friends, we must be 
going. O. A. Martin, our "Farmer 
Poet" in his book entitled "Sparks 
From a farmer's Anvil," page 162, 
and beginning at the first line of the 
sixth verse of the 726th poem of the 
5879 written up to that date, sings: 

"How foolish it is to longer wait, 
Level your gun and keep it straight; 
Then you a marksman sure will be 
In that land where all are free." 

And lest somebody might accident- 
ally pull the trigger, we will quit 
right here, with a fond farewell. 



(The End.) 



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